Keepin' the dream alive, baby!
by MerlinWolfgangTrades
Summary: Stan gets Ford's postcard but it's not easy for him to go. He's joined the Navy and is about to be shipped out soon. He asks his superior officer and friend, Joe White to go and see what Ford wants. Joe asks him for a story. He's seen Stan's ambition and wants to know where it comes from. Prequel to SEAL Team Sixer.


Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/16198106.

 **Rating** : General Audiences

 **Archive Warning:** No Archive Warnings Apply

 **Fandom** : Gravity Falls, Hawaii Five-0 (2010)

 **Character** : Stan Pines, Joe White

 **Additional Tags:** Stan Pines Joins The Navy, SEAL Stan Pines, Episode Tag, Episode: s02e12 A Tale of Two Stans, Flashbacks, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Friendship

 **Stats** : Published: 2018-10-06 Words: 1392

 **Title** : Keepin' the dream alive, baby! by Merlin_Wolfgang_Trades_Hale

 **Summary** : Stan gets Ford's postcard but it's not easy for him to go. He's joined the Navy and is about to be shipped out soon. He asks his superior officer and friend, Joe White to go and see what Ford wants. Joe asks him for a story. He's seen Stan's ambition and wants to know where it comes from.

* * *

 _Cut to their house; I'm sitting on a couch playing with a paddleball, "One-paddle-paddle-paddle, two-paddle-paddle. Man, that Jackie-O, what a fox." I say as Ford enters. "Hey, what's the word, Sixer?"_

 _Ford holds up Toffee Peanuts bag, "Can you explain what_ _ **this**_ _was doing next to my broken project?!"_

 _"Ho-okay. I might have accidentally been, horsing around-"_

 _"This was no accident, Stan; you did this! You did this because you couldn't handle me going to college on my own!" Ford yelled accusingly._

 _"Look, this was a mistake! Although if you think about it, maybe there's a silver lining. Huh?_ _ **Treasure hunting**_ _?" I try to ease over the worst of Ford's anger to no avail._

 _"Are you kidding me? Why would I want to do anything with the person who sabotaged my entire_ _ **future**_ _?!" In his anger, Ford shoves me onto the couch._

 _Pops comes in an picks me up by my shirt and demands, also angrily, "You did what, you knucklehead?"_

 _The commotion was loud so Ma comes out of a room with a crying baby Shermie. She's always held a soft spot for me cos she knew how things were with my old man. Ford didn't ever see him at his worst. Me? Well, that was a secret between me, Ma, and Pops. "Stanley? What's goin' on in here?"_

 _"Wait, no, I can explain; it was a mistake!" I felt bad before, but as everything came crashing down, I just felt worse._

 _Pa throws me outside without much thought. It all happened really fast. "You ignoramus! Your brother was gonna be our ticket out of this dump! All you ever do is lie and cheat right on your brother's coattails. Well, this time you cost our family potential millions! And until you make us a fortune, you aren't welcome in this household." He throws a duffel bag at me. It was pre-packed, and not by me. So he had already made moves to kick me out. Or maybe it was a kindness from Ma. She couldn't escape from under his grasp but I was still her lil mischiefmaker. So maybe she packed it as a kindness for the inevitable._

 _"What?! Stanford, tell him he's bein' crazy!" I begged and looked up at our bedroom window. Ford, who was watching out his window, closes the curtains. The sinking feeling in my stomach just got worse. "Stanford? Don't leave me hangin'. High six?" Thinking back on it now, I felt kinda pathetic. Or really pathetic, but I couldn't really admit how dependent I was of my brother. Hell, I didn't even really thought I was. We're brothers. Twins! It seemed natural that I'd think that...we'd always be together. Filbrick slams the door and my inner and outer stubborn brat surfaces, "Fine. I can make it on my own! I don't need you! I don't need anyone! I'll make millions and you'll rue the day you turned your back on me!"I got in my car and drove away._

"Thanks to one dumb mistake I had no brother, no home, no nothing. But I had a plan to fix everything. The Navy wasn't where I thought I'd end up, not really. But it was kind of an obvious choice."

"Took you that long to realize it?" Joe asked him.

"Heh. Shut up. I guess my stupid dream of sailing the world with my brother was just too real for me. I always knew my brother was the smartest person I knew, and I thought he'd be by my side forever. I didn't have to think of the hows. He'd handle that. He'd make any one of my insane plans come true." Stan still spoke highly of his brother. Even if he felt abandoned by him, he wouldn't talk too bad about him.

"If we hadn't picked you up, what would have been the long-term plan?"

Stan shrugged. "I had some ideas. And before I would have been damn sure one of them would have become a best seller and make the fortune my father wanted. But ya know...Rico, drug cartels, avoiding prison. Once was enough. Especially since it was in another country."

"You did so great in training. You manage to impress some of the toughest SOB's I know. With how you are, you _seriously_ never thought about joining any form of the military before?"

Stan shrugged. "Not really."

"Why?"

"...my brother. Up until getting kicked out, we were best friends. We had a system and we relied on each other. The shrink says that Ford's dependency on me was stronger when we were kids. With his six fingers and getting bullied and crap, if he didn't have me he'd be alone. He'd be different and alone and he couldn't deal with that. Or so I'd like to think. But we got older. His weirdness wasn't as impressive as his brilliance. The future was coming and Ford was more than ready for it. Me? Not so much. And while there were plenty of scouts for college at the high school near the end of the year, there were also military sign-ups. Many approached me and I was drawn to them. The men there were big and powerful. They demanded respect and authority and they were given just that. The guy for the Navy then was also not a jerk, which surprised me. And he nearly talked me into it."

"So why didn't you sign up while your brother went off to college?"

"Well, when I talked to him it was a year before. Ford wanted to get a sneak peek cos he was a nerd like that. He was too into some really boring stuff and I had wandered off. I thought about pre-enlisting if that's even a thing. The guy gave me a card to call back once I was old enough. Reality began to sink in and I was going to save the card and sign up the first chance I had. But...by some chance of luck, looking back at it now I guess it was more bad than good, Ford had gotten a critical piece for the Stan O' War. And he was so excited that for a moment I believed we still had the same dream. I threw away the card and forgot all about it really."

They were having coffee at a local diner. Stan was given lodging and told to await orders. He was kind of excited. The men he's trained with had become friends. He feels guilty realizing how easily he could make friends when he wasn't picking fights defending his brother or trying not to be seen as his father's punching bag. Ford had sent a postcard to the last place he had given an address to, but Stan hadn't been there. He left a number so they could reach him if anything turned up. He didn't want his Ma to know he'd join and asked to be informed if anything from her arrived for him.

Imagine the shock when he got something from Ford.

"I haven't seen him in over a decade," Stan stated.

"And now he's contacted you out of the blue asking for a favor. But you can't go. You ship out soon."

Stan sighed. This was tearing him up inside. He loved doing what he does and being part of a team like this was everything he's ever wanted. Respect, honor, loyalty. When he enters a place with his uniform people clap for him and not because someone kicked him out. He also looks damn handsome in said uniform. Eating better and doing all the exercise has caused more define muscle and also for his acne to clear up. The ladies even called him the Jersey Devil, and he loved it. He worked hard and he was getting his dues!

But Ford had finally reached out to him.

"Joe...I need a favor."

"You want me to go to Oregon, huh?"

"Will you?" Stan asked, looking hopeful.

"I will. But you're one hell of a soldier, Stanley. Don't think I won't one day collect."

"Heh," Stan smirked, "So long as you're asking me to punch a guy, I think you're good. We are, right?"

"Yeah yeah. I'll go see what your brother wants. Try to stay alive to find out, okay?"

"You ain't getting rid of me that easily."


End file.
